These measures are focused, in part, on placing responsibility on providers of digital services to take effective action to protect children against a variety of online risks, while still respecting their rights under international law to access all the benefits that the digital world has to offer them.
Around the world, and even within the same region, there can be major variations in national laws and regulatory requirements relating to children’s use of digital products and services – for example some countries may have very specific online safety laws while others may not. The consequence is that for businesses offering digital products and services to mixed use audiences (i.e. children and adults) across multiple jurisdictions, it is very challenging to navigate the growing spider’s web of different national legal requirements, regulatory decisions and guidelines aimed at protecting children and respecting their rights.
This Global Comparative Review provides an analysis of the various laws, regulations and guidelines that govern children's rights in the digital world
across
different jurisdictions.
Designed for in-house legal, compliance, product and policy teams, our guide helps you map out core regulatory requirements so you can stay compliant across the following areas:
Country by Country Guide
Click on an area to navigate your way through each region
Country Comparison Tool
This tool can be used to compare regulatory requirements across different countries. Select the topic you would like to compare, then select the countries to see the results.
Main authors
Anna Morgan
Anna is a partner in the Ireland office and is head of the Irish Privacy & Data Protection practice. While Anna advises clients across the complete spectrum of transactional, advisory, regulatory and contentious data protection issues, she has a specialty practice in matters involving: the processing of children's personal data; children’s rights; safeguarding; and online safety.
Prior to joining Bird & Bird, Anna was Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel at the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the lead European data protection regulator for many of world’s largest tech companies. Anna established the DPC's Children's Policy function and led all work on children's data protection issues including production of the DPC’s children’s guidelines.
Shauna Joyce
Shauna is a senior associate in the Ireland office and is a member of the Irish Privacy & Data Protection team. She has extensive experience advising domestic and multinational organisations across a broad spectrum of privacy and data protection issues, as well as on regulatory strategy and engagement.
Shauna enjoys assisting clients in mapping the complex regulatory and legal landscape around children as digital rightsholders, with a keen interest in the intersection between privacy and children's rights.
How can we help
How Bird & Bird can help digital business comply with their obligations relating to child users in multiple jurisdictions
How Bird & Bird can help digital business comply with their obligations relating to child users in multiple jurisdictions
One of the first steps for any digital services provider in implementing higher standards of protection for children and respect for their rights involves understanding the legal landscape in the jurisdictions where there are children accessing their services. We are experts in working with clients to build bespoke compliance solutions. We can support you at all stages of your product cycle and compliance journey from helping you to assess and identify discrete risk areas and mitigation measures to designing and implementing comprehensive multi-jurisdictional and global children’s compliance programmes.
